(INDIANAPOLIS) - A colonel who has nearly 30 years of military experience has become the first black brigadier general in the Indiana National Guard.

The Indiana National Guard held a promotion ceremony Saturday for Wayne Black at the Indiana War Memorial. He is a 1984 Citadel graduate and will be an assistant adjutant general in the Guard.

Black joined the Indiana Army National Guard in 1996. He was most recently deployed to Afghanistan in 2008 as the commander of an embedded training team that provided training, mentorship and oversight to the Afghan National Police and the Border Police.